Ulster County Legislator Tom Corcoran [R-Marlborough] said the town’s Democratic Party did not hold a traditional caucus earlier this year.

Corcoran said he read an announcement in the Southern Ulster Times in early 2021 the names of the Democratic candidates for Supervisor and for Town Council. He said he was surprised, in part, because he did not see anything about a caucus.

“At some point they had changed their by-laws and decided they were not going to hold a caucus and they were going to do this petition thing,” he said.

Corcoran stressed that it is not illegal to use a petition process rather than a caucus in choosing candidates, according to the Board of Elections in Kingston.

“It is a terrible way to approach your defense of doing a petition because it’s [caucus] the opportunity and the advertising for you to actually have a voice in government. I don’t care how many show up at a caucus, but its open government to allow somebody to show up at that caucus. When you do a petition like they did, and they take their 10 committee members and they go out and get six signatures each, which equals 60 or however you want to slice it, that does not give the opportunity for the thousands of registered Democrats to come to a caucus.”

Corcoran said the petition process actually excluded Conservatives and Republicans from coming to a Democratic caucus when the Marlborough Republican caucus is open to anybody in town.

“Bottom line is those are the people [registered party members] who vote at the caucus, but everybody is invited to that caucus whether you’re Republican, Democrat, Conservative to hear the opposing side, to hear that candidate get up and make a speech, to have the opportunity to question; those things were all taken away from everybody in the Town of Marlborough. It’s not illegal but the Democrats cheated my town the opportunity to put up candidates, to see candidates, to have candidates.”

Supervisor Al Lanzetta said he was familiar with the criticism leveled by Corcoran against the Democrats. Lanzetta said part of the reason for the petition process was because of covid-19, “and we already had a slate and the incumbents were going to run, myself and [councilman] Howard Baker.” He added that typically about 20 “faithful Democrats” come to a Democratic caucus but this year they decided to do it by the petition process.

“It was done in a manner we felt comfortable with, it was our choice and that’s the way we did it,” he said, adding that he does not understand the logic of the criticism, “unless it is to take every line away from somebody, so this way the public does not have a choice.”

Lanzetta said there was also a lawsuit this year over his being on the Working Families line with Republicans claiming that somehow it was done incorrectly. The matter was adjudicated in the Supreme Court in Kingston, which Lanzetta won.

“They tried to knock me off the Working Families Party line; why would they do that?” he asked. “I believe there is a pattern here. Why is somebody so fixated and just rants about how the Democrats run their business. We don’t say anything about the Republicans, we stick to our own house.”

Marlboro Republican Party Chairman Tom Coupart is in agreement with Corcoran.
“My only question would be, why do that? Are you trying to disenfranchise the rest of your Democratic base?” he said. “I understand they carried petitions, which is legal but do I agree with it? No. I think it [caucus] should be open to the general Democratic Party here in town. Why did they not, are they afraid of something because anybody can be nominated for any position, even if you do not belong to that party. That is my only question, why did they do it?”

Marlborough Democratic Party Chairman Ted Millar said Corcoran’s actions are, “a little bit disconcerting when the county Legislator understands the primary and caucus processes. I think it was kind of a low blow because the public really doesn’t know the difference between the two and I think he put some information out there that potentially could have misled the public about the process, insinuating that what we were doing was somewhat underhanded.”

Millar said by their going out to registered Democrats, seeking their support by petition, they actually ended up contacting more individuals than are at in-person caucuses. He discounts the criticism that this method limits public participation in the choosing and support of their party candidates.

Millar said Marlborough Democrats amended their by-laws in February and he expects they will use the petition process going forward in perpetuity, unless at some future date the party wishes to return to the caucus format.